130 health workers sued Prague Na Homolce Hospital for taking breaks from work, CNN Prima News reported. Health workers say they have no time off and hospitals are not compensating them for lost time as they should. Hospital management denied that they reimbursed employees for unused rest pay.
The lawsuits were filed mostly by nurses, but also by some doctors. They are demanding reimbursement for rest costs for the last three years. Hospital employees have the right to eat and rest for at least 30 minutes after six hours of work, said Prima.
The head of the union at Na Homolce Hospital, Tomáš Schiffler, told television that employees had no time to rest. Hospital spokeswoman Martina Dostálova said the hospital will reimburse employees for unused breaks if they are recorded in time sheets. However, according to Schiffler, reports with gaps are pre-filled and employees will not be paid if they do not sign them.
The Ministry of Health wants to wait for the court’s decision. “We will see how the courts react to this,” Deputy Health Minister Jakub Dvořáček told Prima.
Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek (TOP 09), together with Minister of Labor Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL) and his deputy Vít Kaňkovský (KDU-ČSL), want to submit an amendment to the Labor Code to the DPR in accelerated discussions, which would cancel the increase in overtime work for doctors which was recently approved. The latest changes will take effect from October 1, according to Válk, it could return to the original state from January.
If the amendment goes into effect without further changes, doctors want to stop voluntary overtime work in protest in December. They previously said their actions were supported by 4,000 of the hospital’s 20,000 doctors. They assured that acute care would not be curtailed even if protests occurred, planned protests might be postponed.
This code also provides for mandatory continuous rest between shifts. Starting in October, according to the Labor Code, it is only possible to plan 12-hour shifts in hospitals, after which doctors must take a continuous break of at least 11 hours.
According to ČLK vice-president Zdenek Mrozek, the changes will result in doctors, coupled with possible overtime, not getting a full day off a week. “We also discussed the exception of maintaining 24-hour shifts, because when combined with 832 hours, it is a major problem,” Válek said.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) stated this week that the Czech Republic is negotiating with the European Commission about 24-hour shift exemptions. According to Válk, the salary class of young doctors should also be increased starting January based on a government order.
In the Spotlight program, the head of the largest hospital in the Czech Republic, FN Motol, Miloslav Ludvík, leans on young doctors who are threatening to protest because of the possibility of a law to give them more overtime:
“Certified bacon geek. Evil social media fanatic. Music practitioner. Communicator.”
